A Portland State men's basketball player who spent two days in a Mexican jail accused of beating a Michigan man close to death says it was the most terrifying experience of his life.

"It was horrible," Scott Morrison told Canwest News Service in an exclusive interview today. "You know you can't fall asleep at any time. The police were pulling guys in and out of the jail. You don't know who's in there for what. It was the most scary thing."

Morrison, 22, was arrested early Sunday, along with his Portland State University teammate Jeremiah Dominguez, also 22, while they were out in the Mexican resort town of Cabo San Lucas. The two teammates were picked up by Mexican authorities outside a bar after a 23-year-old Michigan man, found badly beaten early Saturday, gave police descriptions of assailants that matched Morrison and Dominguez.

Kyle Meagher had to have eight screws and two titanium plates installed into his jaw after his attack. His Mexican doctor told him that he would not be able to chew tough food for a year due to his injuries.

Morrison, a Vancouver, B.C., native, arrived with some friends and family in Mexico March 26 to celebrate their team's first appearance in the NCAA Tournament.

He didn't know that a conversation with police officers that Sunday night would lead to him and Dominguez spending the rest of their weeklong vacation in a cement jail cell, with six local men and no food or water.

"We were walking to a bar when one of the police officers made eye contact with me and signaled me to come over," said the former North Vancouver high school student. "I wasn't going to argue with the police."

Morrison said the officer spoke to him in halting English, asked for his identification and then put him into the back of a police pickup truck.

"I kept asking him 'What's the deal?' and he kept telling me that he didn't know yet," Morrison recalled. "By that time Jeremiah walks over and they just grab him and put him in the truck bed. At this point, they stop talking in English and just started speaking in Spanish."

The two were stripped of their clothes and belongings and thrown in jail. They were never charged with anything, and their efforts to give police their statements or to find out why they were arrested were rebuffed for two days, Morrison said.

Their attempts to give the Mexican authorities $100 -- all the cash they had with them -- were refused, he said.

It wasn't until two hours before their release Tuesday that American and Canadian consular officials told them why they had been jailed.

"(Meagher) told the American consulate that a big guy and a small guy had beaten him up," the six-foot-11, 250-pound center said. "We were shocked, looking at each other, like, 'Are you serious?' We hadn't met any guys there ... As far as I'm concerned it could've been anybody."

In fact, he said, at the time of the assault around midnight Saturday, Morrison and Dominguez were at a bar down the street, adding that "at least 300 people," mostly tourists, were out that night in the bar district and could have seen him.

Reached late Wednesday in Lansing, Mich., with his mother at his side, Meagher spoke clearly and plainly despite his jaw injury, saying he was certain it was Morrison who hit him.

"I am positive," he said. "One of my co-workers brought in the picture. How I initially described him was, 'There was a tall guy and a short guy.' She brought in the picture and I go, 'Oh, that's the guy right there.' I don't know how it worked out so perfectly, but there's not too many kids that are 6-foot-11 in Cabo."

But Morrison flatly denied the allegation.

"Anybody who knows me knows I would never hit anybody," Morrison said. "That's always been a knock on me that I'm not aggressive enough on the court, not to mention how passive I am off the court."

In fact, he said, Mexican authorities examined the men's fists and concluded there were no signs of injury consistent with serious punches.

"It was a total misunderstanding," he said. "Most people who were down there knew who we were and that we played for Portland State. They were telling us 'That's awesome,' just praising us, and that was fun. But it almost came back to bite us."

Mexican authorities let the two go after they hired a lawyer, who insisted the detained men be allowed to provide statements to police, Morrison said. He also noted that the two consulates gave conflicting descriptions of where the alleged attack took place. The Americans said it was at another bar in the district while the Canadians said it happened in front of a Burger King.

Morrison is expected to return to his campus this weekend to speak with his basketball coach and Dominguez. He said he has not been contacted about reports that the two have been suspended indefinitely for the alleged attack.

"I don't see how that's possible. There are no charges. No nothing. It was total misunderstanding. We were set free," he said. "The Mexican DA (district attorney) even apologized and told us to stay in Mexico for a couple of days before flying home."

But the college senior, who is set to graduate in July, vows never to return to Mexico.

"My best friend has a house down there but I told him that I'm not even going to be going to his wedding in Mexico," Morrison said. "I'm going to try my hardest not go back there ever again."